According to a CNN article on Tuesday, September 27,

Former FEMA director Michael Brown aggressively defended his role in responding to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday and put much of the blame for coordination failures on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

“My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional,” Brown told a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe.

Here’s what I don’t get. How come he didn’t know until Saturday? I’m not saying that Louisiania was dysfunctional at all. But if Michael Brown was inclined to think they might be, how come it took five whole days to decide?

I understand that deciding is a problem for alot of people. But if you are in a position that requires you to react… like say an emergency management job… then I think maybe a mean time between action and reaction should be something less than five days.

Katrina was a big problem, requiring a big action. And I understand requiring more than five minutes to decide what to do. But waiting five days? That just seems excessive.

I wonder how long it takes Michael Brown to choose an entre from a two page single spaced menu?